Lillies and Lavender

I bought some lily bulbs a couple of weeks ago, but delayed planting them in the ground due to the continuous cold and rain. Today, after a morning's rain, it was quite mild (10 degrees C) so I set out to dig deep holes to plant the lilies. The bed (on the left hand side from the back door) is slightly raised, and the soil quite sandy, so quite easy to dig even after the rain. I planted four Lilium Henryi, which are tall orange tiger lilies, with reflexed petals, in front of the honeysuckle at the back of the border. They looked like this:

I planted three lilium regale next to the box hedge.

One of the problems with my overgrown lavender is that I have to keep stepping over it to get on the flower bed. I noticed today that, although there were signs of growth, the woody branches were very brittle and some had snapped off. So I made my mind up, finally, to remove the hedge, which had been there for five years - pretty good for lavender. It didn't take long, and the plants didn't seem to have very big roots, which was a relief, since they were inter-planted with allium bulbs which I didn't want to disturb.

The garden went from this:

to this:

The garden looks a lot wider now. When the soil and other debris which had collected under the lavender has dried off, I will be able to tidy the path up and it will look a lot better.

I may replace the lavender hedge, using fewer plants planted further apart, and pruning them much harder to stop them getting woody. But it will be a while before I do this, so there is time to come up with other ideas.

And finally - the double hellebores in pots are beginning to shine - here are some more pictures

I shouldn't really but.....

I was trying not to do any gardening this weekend, because I have a slight twinge in my back and I don't want to make it worse. But a visit to the RHS gardens at Wisley yesterday led to some impulse buys, and I couldn't resist perking up my front garden with some instant colour. So today I planted some early dwarf daffodils (Jetfire) and some native primroses.

Looking good in the front at the moment is this Arum Italicum Marmoratum, which produces lush winter foliage, and bright red berries in autumn.

 

Also purchased yesterday were some lily bulbs. I decided to plant these species lilies, Lilium Cerneum, in a small pot, using Westland Peat-free general purpose compost.

I've put heavy stones on top of the pot to stop the squirrel digging up the bulbs - I will remove them as soon as the shoots start to show, when hopefully the squirrel will have lost interest.

More signs of spring

I didn't do any gardening this weekend, but I did take my camera out to photograph some early spring flowers which have bloomed, following a relatively mild week.

The hellebores are usually the first to flower, but I think they have been held back by the cold January weather. The first flowers have opened this week:

I love the variety of shape, colour and pattern you get with these oriental hybrids.

Another early flowerer is this shrub - Daphne Bholua "Jacqueline Postill". The flowers are small, but highly scented, and the shrub is evergreen and a lovely tall slim shape, so it fits my small front garden perfectly. I often see passers-by stop to smell the flowers.

I was surprised to see this camellia flower fully open. It was one of the lower flowers, sheltered from the worst of the weather. The shrub was already in the garden when I moved in, and is in a raised bed next to my little shed. The other buds on the camellia are still quite closed, or just showing a little colour.

Most of the flowers are just deep pink, but a few have this white blotchy effect. I think this is a natural variation, rather than a virus, because the bush is otherwise very healthy.